


When In Want Of A Nail... (2 Years Prior)

by FactorialRabbits



Series: Riding The Wind - A Rune Factory AU [3]
Category: Rune Factory 4, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Is the maguc system internally consistent?, Referenced NHS/MXY, References to Canon, Somewhere, and the rf4 is mostly terminology, backstory to a fic I have yet to start uploading, but given the level of crossover its holding up, but none of that shows up here, i have notes and everything!, magical researcher!wwx, not in the slightest, prince!mxy, prince!nhs, technically also crossover with tgcf, theyre very a mess...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24881683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FactorialRabbits/pseuds/FactorialRabbits
Summary: The Yiling Laozu meets two people who, according to records, do not exist. And yet that is not the most interesting mystery they present.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Riding The Wind - A Rune Factory AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752499
Kudos: 2





	When In Want Of A Nail... (2 Years Prior)

**Author's Note:**

> More background for a fic I still have to even finish a chapter of! This actually contains pretty major spoilers for the main fic but also eh don't really care?  
> It does also set up a couple of things on the worldbuilding you don't get later because amnesia protagonist.
> 
> There's really a whole interesting series of NHS and MXY getting to this point here, buuuuut this is WWX's PoV. Maybe I'll write that sometime. I'm really flakey atm? I keep stacking migraines and by the time I've recovered by one I get another.
> 
> If you know the Rune Factory 4 plot, then you can probably already guess where this is going and what it ends up with.
> 
> EDIT: Never, never let me edit when both I and my proof reader are in migraine hangover. I'm so sorry >.<

Just as necessity had driven Wei Wuxian from Yunmeng to Lanling, so it drove him from the dizzying heights of Koi Tower and into the city below. The circumstances were far less dire - needing to find a gift for his infant nephew, as compared to invasion and destruction and poison and the instinctual need to survive - but they existed none the less. The gift he had chosen was a deceptively simple little thing, a selection of brightly coloured beads which could easily be strung together with the bell that Jiang Cheng was, despite tradition dictation it was only for nationals of Yunmeng, determined to give him. For now they were merely pretty beads, but they would not be for long; Wei Wuxian, Yiling Laozu to use his formal if now irrelevant title, was the primary expert on rune magic. And, unlike other magic, it was really quite simple to embed an enchantment into an object, and give it a conditional activation. Sure, there were protection charms that worked by calling the favour of the gods when in need, but those required a specific god to be both alive and paying attention!

And, as Yunmeng's fall had proven, gods were far, far too fallible to rely upon.

If Wei Wuxian could not trust the gods to help him, well, he would just do it himself! Embed the beads with protection enchantments and teleport spells and cures and healing, all bound to activate should Jin Rulan - and only Jin Rulan - required them. It was a fascinating project, riddled with complications, but Wei Wuxian loved nothing if not a challenge. He had most of it planned and tested - using himself as a test subject of course, he was immoral not unethical - but there were still a few adjustments he needed to make.

He continued to wander his way home, swishing his own bell, untucked from its hiding place in his belt, as he walked. If he linked the auto-stabilisation spell to the healing aura... No, like to like did not combine well; maybe link that one to teleport? But did he only want his nephew teleporting to safety if near death and unconscious... No, bad idea. Ah! Link auto-stabilise with a ward to keep _everything_ far away from him, and leave the teleport alone. Maybe an activation phrase? He wanted to give his nephew an escape from trouble, but it would be rather inconvenient if he tripped and merely grazed his knee, and was teleported half way across the continent...

Distracted as he was, Wei Wuxian managed to walk himself into an alleyway he did not recognise. Realising this, he looked about with a nervous laugh; nothing was familiar, and the building packed close enough he could not even see Koi Tower to orientate himself by. While he had been living under the protection of the House of Jin and their numerous branches for a year now, he still had yet to memorise most of the city below. He did not often have reasons to go into the city, especially not alone, locked away in his laboratory or out harvesting components as he usually was. His sister probably would have been able to walk him home, but he was alone. With a shrug, he straightened his back and, pretending to know exactly where he was, picked a direction and walked.

And that was how Yiling Laozu, greatest practitioner of Rune Magic in all the World, feared leader and administrator, academic of international repute, crafter of theories and enchanted items beyond imagination found himself in a dark, cobbled, abandoned alleyway, his back to the wall, and approached by two men.

One was in a green and yellow and grey robe, and wearing a plain, woollen poncho over the top. While his clothing was clearly of the latest fashion, the colours were not, and his hair was certainly too short for anyone of Lanling to consider reputable; it was the golden bracelet-cuffs and hairpins and the delicate, slow flapping of a clearly high quality fan that gave his clearly status away. What status exactly Wei Wuxian could not be sure; there was something about him that triggered a memory, but it was faint and distant and distant. Especially the mountains and trees on the fan...

Whoever he was, he certainly had more resources than most of the nobles who attended court. Maybe a very rich merchant? They tended to have more disposable money, if less land, which would account for just how much gold and how many enchantment emeralds he wore. It could also explain the short hair; the merchant class had far more flexibility to experiment with things like that, not relying on tradition to keep their families afloat.

Enviable, really.

As for his companion... His trousers and shirt were clearly the garb of a peasant, if a better off one, and yet he was wearing the uniform of the Princes of the House of Jin over it - a tunic and cloak in yellow, and his belt ranked him important enough to have it inlaid in amber, and even the sapphires that had been mostly abandoned by all but the most senior members of the house. He had the look of one of Jin Guangshan's sons but, even if Wei Wuxian were to think very hard about it, he was certain he had not seen this one at any meeting. So he should be lower ranked, and yet he was uniformed as though favoured, and yet the clothing beneath was not something Jin Guangshan would permit even his most hated children be seen dead in. His entire existence seemed a juxtaposition. Peasant but favoured member of the richest of the royal houses.

It was possibly they were Wens in disguise. With each passing second of staring one another down, it seemed less and less likely; neither had drawn a weapon, though he had seen a combat knife tucked into merchant's belt, and the Prince had the aura of a mage. Maybe even a rune manipulator like Wei Wuxian himself; it was said those magics still ran in the Jin bloodline.

Uncertain, Wei Wuxian smiled at the two of them, and began plotting his escape route. He did not really have to resort to teleport; he had things to do with his day still...

"Yiling Laozu," the man in green gave a thin smile, not even a hint of a question in his voice.

Wei Wuxian rested his hand on the tome at his waist. He did not like that smile, and neither did he like the tone; not only. His eyes narrowed, "you find me at a disadvantage; who is this young master greeting?"

The grin on the man widened, as his companion sighed, "My name is Nie Huaisang - yes that Nie Huaisang - and this is my partner, Mo Xuanyu,Twenty First Prince of the House of Jin. The pleasure is of course ours."

Nie? The Nies were dead. Had been dead for longer than Wei Wuxian had lived with the Jiangs, the entire royal line wiped out when Qishan invaded Qinghe.

Though... Wei Wuxian ran quickly through what he knew of those names in his head; Nie Huaisang. Second Prince of the House of Nie. Died age five during the invasion of Qinghe alongside the first Prince Qinghe, both crushed in the rubble of the fortress of the Unclean Realm as they sheltered there from the attacking Qishan forces. Crushed as once strongest fortress known to them was in an instant blown apart by the dark magics of the Immortal Emperor At least.. That is what had been said. On further consideration, nobody had actually claimed to have seen the bodies, buried in rubble as they were; it was maybe possible the prince had been spirited away... Really, he wasn't sure if to trust them more or less from that claim. Possible, but if he was a missing and long lost prince, why on earth was he talking to Wei Wuxian and not, say, the King. Who he obviously new, if he was actually engaged to the Twenty First Prince.

Which was another point. Usually the presence of a Prince of the House of Jin would at least assure Wei Wuxian that they were not going to cause too much trouble, if only because repair costs would be taken from their allowances. But the Twenty First Prince... It was a missing number, one who never showed to meetings, nor had any known duties, nor even appeared on the family tree. Rumour said he had died young, or he had disowned himself, or been disowned, or even he had been erased to work as a spymaster... Though, with his knowledge, Wei Wuxian was pretty certain that the Thirteenth Prince, Jin Guangyao, was the actual spymaster. He was also pretty certain that he had seen the name 'Mo Xuanyu' cross his table as something to do with magical research, but that report had been so heavily redacted it had been basically useless.

Not in the slightest reassured, the finger on Wei Wuxian's tome became his entire hand gripping it, "then, my Lords, what do you require from this Yiling Laozu?"

"These servants have a proposition for you," Nie Huaisang's smile twisted, the cold glint breaking into... relief? It seemed... Strangely real, at least for the second that Wei Wuxian saw it before it was hidden behind the fan. "We require an expert in Rune Magics, and we are informed Yiling Laozu is the most skilled. Dage..."

Nie Huaisang burst into tears, surprising Wei Wuxian; he had not seemed the sort a moment ago, and yet they were genuine. Far, far too real to be anything but genuine genuine. Was the wicked smile disguising these instead? Mo Xuanyu looked panicked for only a moment, before he pulled his companion into a hug and took over speaking, "we believe that someone has performed this ritual on him, as to avert a worse disaster. While this one could pull him from the ritual, he could do it neither safely nor could he avoid the consequences of undoing it. It will also run dry; a longer term solution is needed."

He offered up a scroll; Wei Wuxian's eyes widened as he made a first glance over it. The notes were chaotic, and yet the instructions clear, the diagrams some of the clearest and most precise. It was obviously a truly ancient scroll, and yet preserved perfectly. Clearly magically so. This... this ritual... What even...

Oh. Oh. A ritual to... Fascinating, but difficult. Immoral, potentially. To use the potential to... Why would you... Oh! Oh... Hm...

"Can you do it?" Mo Xuanyu looked more than a little desperate as he hugged Nie Huaisang closer. "Can it be done?"

Nervous laughter escaped Wei Wuxian's lips as he was interrupted, and he hoped it was taken as confidence; could it be done? This ritual was, if it were to be believed, literally written by multiple gods working in unison. Wei Wuxian was good, but he was not the combined mental forces of multiple civic and elemental gods. It was to perform an act that should be impossible; they were asking him to improve on the work of the gods themselves, was that even possible... Expectant eyes looked at him, both desperate and one teary; attempt the impossible, and all that. Yunmeng may be occupied, but he was still one of them. He gave the two of them a bright smile, "sure! It may take a little while, but it's not like I have any other projects right now."

The look of sheer relief on the faces of the men made guilt well in his stomach.

"Thank you," Nie Huaisang darted from where he was to hug Wei Wuxian instead. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Startled, Wei Wuxian failed to remember what happened next. One moment he was being hugged by Nie Huaisang, and the next he was alone on the street, a faint wind whipped up, and an ancient scroll in one hand. He looked down at it - still the same, still an impossible task - and looked back up.

They hadn't felt like ghosts, but for people to just disappear... Glancing around, he saw a disturbance in the Runeys... Teleport? Interesting. Not as interesting as the scroll, but interesting none the less. That Mo Xuanyu was a rune mage, then. He would have to keep an eye on that; for all he was sheltering them, Jin Guangshan should not be trusted with... well, anyone, but people with powers like that certainly.

Another day's problem; the world had not been broken yet, so it could last another few days. Or years. Or... Something.

Wishing somewhat for his old library, or the ear of Grandmother Thundermaster, bless her name and may her soul be at peace, he picked a direction and started trying to find his way back to Koi Tower proper, his rooms and his laboratory and to get started on this. It... Well, what was a bit of impossibility in his life? At least he did not have a time limit this time.

**Author's Note:**

> What the ritual is for I decided was too spoilers to go here :3 The longfic is very slow work... Like each chapter is a length I'd call an especially long oneshot, so... You know...
> 
> Next week hopefully some modern au or a bit more of the mxy in gusu au! Though, well, we'll see what my migraines do. I have some unconnected NHS and some random tgcf bits if I'm suffering again.


End file.
